The home course. The 2006 trophy. That would seem sufficient to send Sara Slattery’s confidence sky-high as she defends her title in the Bolder Boulder 10km race on Memorial Day.

The presence of Ethiopian Teyba Erkesso prevents the two-time NCAA champion and former University of Colorado standout from being so bold.

“The experience of running here gives me confidence. I know the course and what it is like. There is a little bit of an advantage for me and I’m coming from training at altitude,” Slattery said. “But there are so many strong women in this field. That balances my confidence.”

Erkesso won last month’s Cherry Blossom Ten Mile Run in an unofficial world record time of 51 minutes, 44 seconds, and is the favorite in the 29th Bolder Boulder, suggested Rich Castro, pro athlete coordinator for North America’s third-longest road race.

Erkesso has never raced in the Bolder Boulder.

“She is just hot. She is coming off a world’s best for 10 miles. A week ago she ran 31:13, which is the second fastest 10,000 meters in the world this year,” Castro said. “She is running extremely well. She will be facing Edna Kiplagat from Kenya. Kiplagat has two victories in major road races in the month of May. It should be interesting.”

In the men’s race, Ethiopia’s Berhanu Adane isn’t back to defend his second Bolder Boulder title, leaving the field wide open, as usual.

“You have Alan Culpepper, he is one of America’s all-time top-ten 10,000-meter runners,” Castro said. “He has been second here before, so he knows how to run here.”

Slattery, the 2005 NCAA 10,000-meter champion and ’03 winner in the 5,000, used to watch the Boulder race from her campus apartment, dreaming of one day running with the elites. When she finally did, she outran them all, edging Poland’s Dorota Gruca by a second for the victory.

Slattery, however, is using the Bolder Boulder race this year as a stepping stone to the world championships next month.

“This will be my only road race for a while,” she said. “My focus is mainly about making the world championships for track in the 10k.”

Kiplagat called the Boulder race “a good tuneup for the world championships.”

Erkesso, on the other hand, said she’s not thinking that way at all.

“I’m not thinking past this race. All my focus is on this weekend,” she said.

The men’s field also is full or runners who are thinking about the world championships and the Beijing Olympics.

“The Olympics are my objective, so are the world championships,” Ndirangu said.

He doesn’t believe that focus will detract from his performance on Monday.

So is Culpepper, from Lafayette, Colo., who skipped last year’s race after participating in the Boston Marathon.

“It is good timing for me three weeks out from nationals,” Culpepper said. “That’s most important to me and I like to race here at home. … I know the course and I’ve run here enough to know what I need to do.

“Racing at altitude is totally different. It’s important to have a really good sense of perceived effort. I’ve been here for 15 years so I think I’m dialed into that.”

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